The invention relates to X-ray examination equipment made up of a frame, a patient examination table which is slidably connected to the frame, and a column which supports an X-ray source. The column is movable on a guide rail which extends in a longitudinal direction.
Equipment of this kind is very suitable for making exposures. In such apparatus, the X-ray source and X-ray film (arranged in the frame) remain aligned with respect to each other in a central position, while the floating table top supporting the patient is moved. For this method of making exposures, it is important that the frame has small dimensions in the longitudinal direction. This is to enable the radiologist to walk right up to the frame from the head end or foot end when the table top has been shifted to the foot end or head end, respectively. A further requirement to be satisfied by such X-ray apparatus is that the X-ray source must be slidable over a comparatively long distance in the longitudinal direction, beyond the basic frame. For example, this enables exposures to be made by means of a cut-film changer situated at the head or foot end.
A Bucky exposure apparatus of the kind described above is known from U.S. Pat. No. 3,838,286. The guide rail for guiding the column in this apparatus is arranged at the longitudinal side of the patient examination table and its length exceeds that of the frame of the patient examination table. The guide system thus projects beyond both ends of the frame and is arranged to be stationary in the room. This apparatus has the drawback that walking around the apparatus and working on the patient at the foot end and the head end, and particularly at the longitudinal side where the guide system is arranged, are severely restriced or even precluded, because the area of the feet and the knees is blocked over the entire length of the table.